TOES

Improve Toe Mobility –

clean calcium & old scar tissue out of joint.

Problem:

Dislocations are tears in the soft tissues (tendons, ligaments, capsules) that hold a joint together, that keep it straight.

Dislocations due to violent injury:

Jamming or ‘stubbing’ a toe. This common injury is caused by a single event, such as catching your toe on a stair step or banging it during a sporting activity. Usually toe sprains heal with time, though a doctor should always be consulted if an internal injury such as a broken bone is suspected. However, once healed toe joint is often stiff with scar tissue & calcium. 

Treatment:

See the doctor if in doubt, and/or the standard treatment R.I.C.E., rest, ice, compression, elevation. Any residual stiffness & immobility should be worked out by taking the toe in your fingers and carefully moving it in ever increasing circles, paying special attention to any part of the injured joint that doesn’t feel smooth & gliding. Manually working the toe like this will break up any stickiness & help restore full range of motion.

Dislocations due to biomechanical problems:

Big toe is constantly turned too far toward 2^nd toe, often called bunions. One cause of this is long term physical posture problems, especially a rotation misalignment or anterior displacement of the bottom (5^th) lumbar vertebra. This condition exaggerates curve of low back, tilts pelvis slightly forward, shifts belly weight forward, and thus alters the way feet must stand to maintain balance. This has a tremendous effect on big toes, since their main function is to help keep balance, sometimes causing them to gradually turn further & further inward.

Treatment:

Reversing this biomechanical path toward eventual bunion surgery is extremely difficult. Halting its progress is the more realistic goal. And even this usually means extensive manipulative fluidification therapy. Low back, hip, knee, ankle & feet joints must all be freed from adhesions that hold them slightly out of their anatomically correct angles. And the body needs time to get used to any changes in posture. However, a combination of manipulation massage and custom orthotics usually reduces pain significantly.

Notes:

     If a toe is even slightly dislocated, especially if joint capsule is injured, the toe will try to hide, to tuck into the other toes, to become undifferentiated foot-mass instead of independent and finger-like.

     Turf Toe is the bending too far upward of a toe, tearing soft tissue in the joint where toe meets foot (TMT Joint). After such injuries seem healed, they usually haven’t regained their full range of motion, desperately need to be manually rotated to restore full mobility. This should be done approximately once a week until you are satisfied.